Taking about buzzwords: the list on the "interactive chart" contains a list of bad deeds. But, are they really bad? So, the constitutional court examine cases over the budget. And what? Is not it still much more powerful than the court in many EU countries.

The Council on the Budget (Költségvetési Tanács) was a socialists made phantom organisation in 2009 (So it is not a 100 year organisation). The ones made it who destroyed the economy. It is like Al Capone has Council of Moral Men. It was expensive, and duplicated the functions of the National Bank or the PSZAF.

What I do not get that the massive violation of human rights and the destruction of the economy by the socialists did not produce such charts. So it is really a buzzword issue. These buzzwords can be sold as news...

What foreign journalists have to understand that, when they here these great buzzword ideas from post-communist journalists, then these things are typically not real.

Of course this creates concern. The economy in Hungary has been bad, and that makes some tough actions neccessary. But the line of actions chosen by this part seems strange, now that Hungary has a central role in Europe. Of course the voices from Hungary is most important. This is a country and a people that have shown resources to fight for their independence. I sure hope the young democracy is mature enough for its new position.

Some said earlier that people democratically had elected Fidesz.
That't true. Although it has to be kept in mind that this election was a protest election. Fidesz was able to win it easily without publishing their programme for the governmental period. (Just in brackets, did they even have one?)Fidesz earned a bianco cheque last spring, mostly due to the low attendance rate.

This whole "let's worry about Hungary" is a bit hypocritical. Nobody really gave a s**t about that country until the post-communist/neo-liberal government jumped in bed with the IMF and the World Bank. Now that Hungary refused to accept even more "help" from these "generous" lenders all of a sudden it came into spotlight.

Hungary "threatened" its poor Central Bank governor, who is involved in off-shore businesses (thus in money laundry and tax-evasion) in Cypress, collapsed talks with the IMF (sic!), raided private pension assets (yes IMF and World Bank, your experience did not work that well!) and now all that new media law...

I don't know, it's a bit awkward to read definitions such as "right-wing" and "freedom of speech" in an American magazine...

No freedom of press in other countries? Maybe so. Does it make Hungary's case any better? No. Maybe you don't like what these observers do, it doesn't mean its incorrect what they say. Unfortunately it is.

Rightful reduction of the Central Bank Chief salary?
What is rightful to you?

The private pension funds are being raided.
That's a fact.
"Gambling agencies?" Sure, they had to buy Hungarian government debt. Members could choose the level of risk they were willing to take.
Stock market is gambling, it may go up and down. Unlike the state pension which may only go down.
No government guarantees for private pension funds? Sure, and no guarantees for private banks either. Why do we need those private things anyway? We're a communist country aren't we?

It's not the IMF/EU who forced the private scheme, but the decreasing population. You may name many countries where they do or do not have the private scheme. So what? It's like you don't have any real arguments to support your statement. Why don't you tell why is it better?

"There really is no reason that those "observers" should be given any credibility." I don't care who they are, I care about what they say. Which, as mentioned above, is sadly true.

"Hungary has chosen its own way, and there is now a strong possibility that other countries will follow suit. This is what those "obervers" fear!"

No, this is what the "other countries" fear. Well, I suppose in some countries with a long tradition of dictatorship this may work, but in other ones with a tradition of freedom, this would never work.

Dodo Bird - `A true Hungarian right winger hates democracy and would like to see that only 6% of the Hungarians have the right to vote like a century ago.`

What are you talking about???? You can`t - on any level - be taken seriously writing nonsense like that.

`person who makes money not by inventing something new, but by getting it from governmental contacts` - this is the perfect definition for the ex communist, comradeship based left winger approach - countless examples from the last 8 years.

What else could an "independent centre of power" be other than an "unrepresentative swill" and captives of foreign institutions.

It isn't the judiciary you are complaining about is it?

Imagine threatening those radical Hungarians theatening Swiss bankers with having to accept the losses resulting from their CHF & Euro retail lending stupidity?

The Rothschild's and the Economist can't stand that now, can they?

With Assange threatening to take down the ZIRP carry trade and derivative empowered US banks and estate a peg or two, we'll give him our legal team, and even put the MHK terrorist sympathiser Geoffrey Robertson on the case to get inside an out of control tent ....

Or is it the closet Hungarians fascists versus socialists play all over again that you are worried about?

Whatever it is speak plainly. Getting unrepresentative European institutions and the bond market to act as a proxy to subjugate Hungary is old styled war mongering Europe all over again.

Mr Széles, the oligarch who owns Echo TV and other media outlets amassed his fortune when public ownership was given away to the well-connected in the early 1990s.

In this sense he is similar to Mr Gyurcsany. But while Gyurcsany remained a left-winger, Mr Szeles pushes his extreme right views on Hungary and the current government.

For westerners - right winger in Hungary means an etatist, nationalist person who makes money not by inventing something new, but by getting it from governmental contacts and by oppressing the poor both economically and politically. A true Hungarian right winger hates democracy and would like to see that only 6% of the Hungarians have the right to vote like a century ago.

Update - Fidesz just submitted a proposal to restrict the right to go on strike, although strikes have been very rare so far.

The west worried about democracy in Hungary? I, as a Hungarian, always find that laughable and hypocritical. In 2006 the Hungarian police, at the orders of the Gyurcsany regime, was instructed to exercise ruthless violence against peaceful anti-government protestors. Some people became handicapped, shot in the eye with rubber bullets, a then opposition politician was beaten with severe wounds, and one could go on and on... Where was Amnesty International then? Any cries for democracy? I think it was not only Fidesz which saw "8 years of misrule and corruption".

Freedom of the press in western Europe? Hello! What's with Julian Assange? In Hungary, thanks to EchoTV, one can hear the Iranian point of view on the Middle East conflict. In the west, the mainstream media constantly parrots the views that are considered extremist even in Israel. In fact the left and right media in Hungary disseminate entirely different points of view. I have lived in four western countries, and I think only the U.S., with its large independent media comes close. But many of the things one can only hear in independent news sources in the U.S., one can hear in the mainstream Hungarian press/TV/radio, and this mostly thanks to pro-Fidesz news sources, like EchoTV.

The Central Bank Chief "threatened" is misleading: "threatened" leaves much to the imagination. His salary (which was higher than Bernanke's) was (rigthfully) reduced.

The private pension funds (they should be called gambling agencies) were not raided. The government guarantees were withdrawn. One would think a truly private pension fund does not need government guarantees. Not to mention, the IMF/EU forced a pension scheme on Hungary (mandatory private funds) which is not practiced anywhere in the west. Only places where these IMF experiments can be carried out with impunity: Africa, some South American countries.

The idea that the power elites of the west have a monopoly on the idea of democracy is so preposterous, given how little of it exists there. There really is no reason that those "observers" should be given any credibility.

The west has raped and pillaged Eastern Europe for the past 20 years. The economic boom of the Clinton years was a result of this rape and pillage. If it was not for the fall of the Iron Curtain, the collapse of American finance would have happened ca. 20 years ago.

Hungary has chosen its own way, and there is now a strong possibility that other countries will follow suit. This is what those "obervers" fear!